


Even if It Leads Nowhere

by thegalrahobbitofplantetgalilfrey



Series: Aftermath Chaos [2]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Cause she's a girl, Female Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, Gen, I'll warn you which chapter it's in, Pidge got Keith kicked out, Spoilers for Season Two, Torture probably, Wanted to do that for ages, because I can finally use ya'll, but you can skip those, texan keith
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-16
Updated: 2017-02-19
Packaged: 2018-09-24 22:25:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,882
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9789854
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thegalrahobbitofplantetgalilfrey/pseuds/thegalrahobbitofplantetgalilfrey
Summary: The Garrison and the Holt's rescue from the Galra from a female Pidge's perspective





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I'm baaack! So, I realized that all my fan fiction was kind of Keith centric, so I'm making fanficton for the rest of them. Also, they are all going to have lines from Adele for their titles. And I can finally use ya'll, or ain't which I had to restrain myself from doing. Yes!!!!!

“Katie? It is you!” Pidge let her mother hug her and fondle her. “I thought… they told me you’d disappeared, and I thought, I thought you’d been taken by whatever had taken Sam and Matt, and I was so worried, and don’t you _ever_ do _anything_ like that again!” Pidge extracted herself from her mother’s embrace. Not that she hated it, she just thought there were some other people who needed her hugs.

            “Mom? I… have a surprise.”

            “What?” Pidge stepped away, and her mother screamed. For there were her husband and son, after two years of despair that she would ever see them.

            “Sam! Matt!” She bear-hugged them both, kissing Pidge’s father right on the mouth. Lance whistled, and Pidge shot the most terrible glare she could manage in this happy moment at him.

            “Happy birthday, mom.” She spun them both back to take a good look at them both, before pulling them back into the hug, yanking Pidge in too.

            “This is the happiest… I can’t even… I never thought…” Tears were flowing freely from her eyes, as well as Hunk’s, who, of course, was the most emotional of all the paladins. Pidge’s mother looked past her son and husband. “Takeshi Shirogane!” She wrapped him into a hug as well. “I didn’t think I’d see you, either!” Then she saw the other paladins. “Oh! All of you, come inside! There are some people who would like to see you!” Confused, the other paladins followed her into the house.

            “Lance?”

            “Hunk!”

            “Takeshi!” All of their families were there, greeting their lost children. Hunk had evidently inherited his hugging habit from both his parents, because they were hugging anyone who would stand still long enough for them to grab, including Keith, whose uncomfortable expression made Pidge laugh. But, hey, at least he didn’t have time to get all awkward and broody because he didn’t have a family with Hunk and Shiro’s parents all over him, along with Lance’s siblings, who Pidge was fairly certain had been ordered to attack Keith like an army of munchkins under Commander Lance. She herself didn’t stray far from her mother and father’s sides.

            “They came here to the Garrison after they learned that their children had disappeared. I talked to them, and we all bonded. And when we learned you were back, well!” Eventually they all settled down on the couches and chairs, or in Lance and his siblings’ case, a pig pile on the floor.

            “Katie, I want to know.” Pidge looked up at her father sharply. What did he want to know? “What happened at the Garrison? You were kicked out, but you got back in? I don’t understand. And then when you rescued us… how did you even know?” Pidge inhaled and exhaled sharply.

            “It’s a long story, dad.”

            “So tell it.” Pidge let her mind float back to those days.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, this chapter flips from different scenes and back to Pidge telling the story, mostly when Keith interrupts. Also, yay, how Pidge got into Iverson's office and hacked his computer is explained, and also how Keith figured out she was a girl, although I'm pretty sure he was lying about that to look smarter than Lance, like, wow, that puts your intelligence at a high level. Kind of like being number four on Coran's height list, so wow, you're taller than Pidge and smarter than Lance. Congratulations Keith. (slow clap) And that was kind of off topic. I ramble, like Pidge.

“No, seriously, where is he?! Ya’ll can’t just tell us he crashed! He was the best there was!” Katie sighed. Come on, kid. Give it a rest. They aren’t going to tell you anything. I found that out the hard way. She was still trying to figure out how to get into Iverson’s office without him seeing her. As the long-haired protester continued to press, pieces clicked in her mind. She had always thought of him as annoying and _way_ to open, but maybe she could use him…

            “Wait. Use me? What?”

            “Relax, Keith.”

            “And you know my name!”

            “Yeah, now I do, but I didn’t then. Now hush.”

            “Hey. I’m Katie Holt.” Her target looked up, startled, and a little suspicious. Obviously he wasn’t used to people talking to him willingly.

            “What’s your name?” he eyed her suspiciously. _Come on. Just talk to me, here._

            “Keith.”

            “You knew that Shiro guy, right?” as if she didn’t know. He only bugged their teachers about his location _every_ day.

            “Yeah. Why?”

            “Why do you think he crashed?”

            “He didn’t. He disappeared.” Exactly what Katie had thought, but she snorted and rolled her eyes.

            “What, you think he was taken by aliens?” He paused. Wait. Did he actually think that?

            “Yes.” OK. Should she back away slowly or keep this up?

            “Hey!”

            “Keith, stop interrupting me!”

            “What…” Keith looked wildly around the room. “Seriously? Is _no_ _one_ questioning this.”

            “No, we’re not Keith.” Lance grinned. “This is hilarious. You actually said ya’ll?”

            “So? Doesn’t everybody?”

            “No, nope, that’s just you.” Shiro rolled his eyes.

            “And everybody else in Texas. Keep going Pidge.”

            Katie decided to keep going. She had to do this, and this was the only way she could think of to get Iverson distracted without getting in trouble herself. She forced a laugh.

            “That’s funny. I didn’t know you could make a joke.” He stood up, his eyes blazing.

            “It’s not a joke! It happened!”

            “Eyes blazing?”

            “I’m serious, Keith, you looked like a demon.”

            “Hmph.”

            “Yeah, I don’t think so.” His face creased into a scowl. “I mean, aliens don’t exist. Just accept that your idol made a mistake and paid for it with his life.”

            “No, they are keeping something from us, I know it!”

            “Iverson is right there. Why don’t you ask him?”

            “I _would_ , but he’s an _idiot_ , and only _lies_.” His voice rose as he spoke. Iverson’s head whipped around.

            “What did you say, Kogane?!”

            “You heard me, Commander One-Eye! You are lying about where Shiro is!” Iverson marched over to them and Katie slid away. This was working better than she had hoped. Keith would keep Iverson occupied long enough for her to get in his office.

            “That was on purpose?! I got kicked out for that! And you…” Pidge winced.

            “Yeah, sorry about that.” Shiro put a hand on Keith’s shoulder.

            “Let it go.”

            Stupid door was locked. Of course it was. He wouldn’t’ve just left it open. Of course not. It couldn’t be that easy, could it? She shoved a small, pointy object into the keyhole. There was a little crunch as something broke inside the lock, and she pulled open the handle. Ha. She might not be skilled at picking locks, but who needed to when you could just break them? She turned on the computer. _Password._ Quiznek. She had not thought this out, had she? Footsteps clattered in the hallway and the door handle turned. She hid under the desk, thanking her lucky stars that she was so small.

            “Kogane, what am I supposed to do with you?!”

            “He says that a lot.”

            “I know, Keith. We all do. Let me talk.”

            “Send me to detention?” Katie could practically hear Keith crossing his arms and Iverson glaring. Ouch. Someone was going to have to treat both these people for burns with the glares they were probably sending each other.

            “Don’t sass me right now!”

            “Yes sir.” Keith’s syllables were drawn out with a country sounding drawl that made it quite clear what he thought of Iverson. How far had he gone?

            “You know what? I don’t want you here anymore. Pack your bags, you’re leaving Kogane. I kept you for your piloting skills, but I do not want to deal with you. Consider yourself expelled.” Whoops. Katie hadn’t meant to get Keith kicked out. Sometimes she wished she was a little less clever. Too late now.

            “Fine. I don’t want to stay here anyway.” Before Iverson could even get up, Katie heard Keith slam the door. Iverson sighed. She pressed further against the desk as Iverson scooted in.

            “Keith… Kogane… Date of expulsion… Discipline issues… Oh, great. That means McClain will take his place. That’s just fantastic.”

            “He did _not_ say that!” Pidge gave Lance the fakest sympathy look that her face would put itself into.

            “Ah, I’m afraid so, Lance. That’s the way the cookie crumbles.”

            Was Iverson _never_ going to leave? How long did it take to type ‘I kicked a teenager out for telling the truth’? Seriously, how long? There was a buzz from the com.

            “He what? He stole the hover bike prototype on his way out? Yes, yes, hold on, I’m coming.” He turned the com off. “And when I catch him, I’m going to strangle him.” He pushed back his chair and left the room. Katie clambered out from under the desk. And Keith was still running a distraction for her. How nice of him. She should send him a thank you card when this was all over with. When she found him, Shiro could deliver it. The computer was still logged in. She quickly started to type in what she wanted.

            “Come on… Almost… there…” The door flew open.

            “Miss Holt! What did I tell you!”

            “What happened at Kerberos?! They didn’t crash!”

            “Gentleman, please escort Ms. Holt off the premises and make sure she never sets foot here again!”

            “You can’t hide the truth from me,” she shouted as the security grabbed her arms, “I _will_ find the answers!” As they dragged her away, she could hear Iverson saying,

            “Great. Now I have to type up _two_ expulsion forms.”

            “Maybe we could head into town, meet some nice girls.” Katie- no, she had to think of herself as Pidge, because if she believed it, everybody else would, winced inwardly. How was she supposed to stay away from getting a girlfriend without revealing that she was a girl?

            “Sorry. I don’t have time to mess around with you guys.” As she made her way to her room, she heard Lance mutter,

            “Geeze, what’s his problem?” She had to suppress a laugh.

 _Nothing, Lance, except I’m not a him. Good to see I have at least_ you _fooled._

            “Commander Holt is my father.” Uh-oh. She could see the wheels turning in both of her companion’s brains. Shiro struggling to remember Matt saying he had a brother, hoping that it was just one of those small things that he had forgotten, and Keith remembering a girl at the Garrison who had started the road to his expulsion, trying to remember if she’d had a twin brother.

            “I can’t man up. I’m a girl. Well, technically I can since it’s just a figure of speech, but-” Wait. She hadn’t fooled any of them except Lance, had she? But they were still okay with it… Her heart swelled with gratitude for her teammates. They loved her no matter who she was. And nothing would ever change that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, Keith's hover bike explained. And also, I love Pidge's philosophy on picking locks. Maybe not everybody in Texas says ya'll, but I say it, my family says it, and all my friends do, so I just assume everybody else in the Lone Star State does as well. Because how do ya'll live without saying ya'll, it's so much easier than saying you guys, and I kept wanting to type it instead of you guys, but I couldn't.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ATTENTION! THIS MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS FOR SEASON 2

“Hey, Katie, tell Dad how you guys found me!”

            “Are you sure you want to say ‘you guys’,” Lance drawled, “and not ‘ya’ll’?” Keith gave him his fullest glare. “That is _never_ going away, Keith. Submit yourself to a fate of corny Texas jokes.” Keith turned to Shiro.

            “Please, can we eject him into space and hope the blue lion doesn’t save him?”

            “No. How did you _ever_ get him to do anything while I was gone?”

            “I didn’t.” Pidge cleared her throat significantly.

            “Pidge, are you sure this is where that escape pod went?”

            “I’m sure. I went through the data three times to be sure. This is where Matt’s escape pod went.”

            “I trust your judgement, but I want to be sure that it’s not a trap.”

            “Geeze, Keith, give it a rest. You sound exactly like Shiro.”

            “Well, someone has to, Lance!”

            “Guys, guys, calm down. Shiro will be out of the cyro pod soon, and then everything can go back to normal.”

“I’m still not sure we should do this until he wakes up.” Pidge turned to the princess.

“Allura, this could be the last time you fly the red lion. Don’t you want that?” The Altean hesitated.

“I do, but I’m not sure we should.”

“It’ll be fine. We’ve been rescuing people since before we even got Voltron. This’ll be a piece of cake. Keith, want to say your line for the last time?”

“Alright team. To the lions!”

“This is so creepy. It’s all deserted.”

“The B.L.I.M.P. tech says there’s only one living organism in the building.”

“Yeah, but I feel like all these robots are staring at me. What if we set off a trap that brings them to life?”

“Relax, Lance. All the traps are neutralized, and the robots aren’t connected to the alarms.” Lance chose that moment to trip on a wire. The alarms started blaring, and a minute later, the robots flickered on.

“Pidge! I thought you said the robots weren’t connected to the alarm!”

“They aren’t! Whoever is up there turned them on!”

“Okay, Pidge, I know you said your brother landed here, but why would he be trying to _kill us_?!”

“I don’t know, Lance, why don’t you ask the robots!”

“Guys, maybe you should focus on _fighting the robots who are all aiming their weapons at us_?!”

“We are advocates for peace. Please put your weapons down.”

“I don’t think so. You and my weapon are about to become _very_ good friends if you don’t tell me who sent you.”

“We are advocates for peace. Please put your weapons down. We do not want to use violence, but will if necessary.”  Keith swung his sword in an arc, slicing the speaker in half.

“Who sent you?!”

“Keith, questions _before_ you kill them. They can’t answer your questions if they’re dead.” Allura dropped her bayard. “Please, take us to your programmer.”

“We will take you. The others must drop their weapons.”

“No way! This could be a trap!” Pidge dropped her bayard.

“If it gets me to my brother.” Hunk dropped his. Keith and Lance kept a firm grip on their weapons.

“Majority acceptance of terms. Necessary actions will be taken.” There was a hiss and Keith and Lance dropped to the ground. Pidge scrambled to their sides. Their pulses were strong. That was good. They were just knocked out.

“It is alright. They refused to drop their weapons. Necessary actions were taken. They will wake in half a quintet.” Two of the robots picked up their prone bodies. “Please, follow us.” The other paladins glanced at each other, and then at her.  She shrugged and followed the robots. Nothing would keep her from her brother when she was this close.

“Please wait.” The robots dumped Keith and Lance to the ground. “We will wait for your companions to wake, and then we will take you to our activator. It will not take long. You will see we caused no lasting harm. We do not wish to cause violence.” True to their words, the black and blue paladins began to stir on the ground, sitting up.

“What happened?”

“You were knocked out.”

“I knew we shouldn’t’ve trusted them!”

“Relax. They only did it because you refused to drop your weapons.”

“Yes. Galra DNA was detected, and therefore disarming was necessary.”

“Just for once, one time, I’d like to be mistrusted for my human DNA,” Keith grumbled, “Instead of always being condemned for my mom’s side of the family. I don’t even _look_ like a Galra.”

“We will take you to the activator.” The robots began marching again. This was it. She was going to find her brother! She was sure of it. But when the robot shoved the door open, it was not Matt. An alien was sitting on the floor. Frustration rose in Pidge’s chest. Why was he never there?!

“Where’s my brother?! Tell me!” The alien scampered over. He was some kind of lizard man, with a tail and green skin.

“The young savior? Close, very close. You look like him. Very much like him. He is your nest mate, you say? Yes, yes, very close semblance. I trust you. I did not at first for you came with a purple one.” Keith threw his arms up into the air and stalked off, muttering something about checking on the black lion. “He does not like me, I can tell. Ah, well. Now, you must understand how the slave-freer came to be on this planet. He was a slave like us, too, and he escaped, yes he did. But he came back, after he escaped. He came back for the rest of us, and he succeeded in bringing us to this planet, which is my home planet. He used the wrecks of ships to build us a home, and fixed other ships so that we could go home, if we had a home. But I stayed, I stayed with him. He built the robots. And then, the purple ones attacked.” A robot shoved Keith back in the room, but nobody payed attention as he tried to leave again.

“Slave-freer saved me. He took a bullet meant for my head. But of course, I am smaller. The bullet wound was not fatal. So I put him in a cold pod.”

“A cold pod?” he nodded emphatically.

“Yes. Hiss, ice, sleep.”

“Oh, a cyro pod. So he’s here? He’s healed?” the alien shook his head.

“No. Cold pod keeps from death, but it does not heal.” Pidge drooped.

“Oh. Just stasis. Well, we can transfer him to a pod on our ship, and it’ll heal him.”

“We’ll have to work fast.” Pidge looked at Keith. He had a robot pinned up against the wall and was trying to snap its head off with one hand. “If he was wounded that badly, we’ll need to get him into the castle and into a healing pod quickly before he dies.” Everybody was staring at the robot he was attempting to decapitate. He followed their gazes and let it drop. “What?”

“Okay, Allura, is the castle in place?” The Altean princess had flown Red back to the Castle of Lions and was piloting it as close as she could to the fortress.

“All ready, Pidge! We have a pod ready too.”

“Great. Okay, you guys ready?” Hunk, Lance and Keith nodded. After it was pulled out of its power source, the stasis pod would have ten minutes of power, and then it would turn off. The three boys’ objective was to get the pod as close to the castle as they could before it turned off, because after that Matt would only have a few minutes to live before his injuries stopped being frozen and he would bleed out.

“Ready… Set… Go!” Pidge yanked the pod’s connection to the wall out and the three other paladins lifted it and ran. They ran down the stairs. Pidge was timing them, because with the last of the power they had to open the pod. They were very close to the castle when Pidge’s watch beeped.

“Thirty ticks, guys!” They pressed a button and the stasis pod hissed open. Hunk picked up Matt’s unconscious body and ran for the castle. Pidge’s heart sank as she calculated how long it would take Hunk to reach the castle. It would be too late. He wasn’t going to make it. Lance and Keith sprinted ahead, Lance stopped and Keith kept running before stopping a few yards away from the castle. Hunk caught up to Lance out of breath and Lance took Matt out of his arm, sprinting towards Keith. Oh. They were running a relay. Keith took his turn and sprinted into the castle, where Allura was waiting she took over, and her Altean strength and speed were sure to get him there. Matt had started to convulse, and Pidge looked at the clock. Not much time was left.

 _Come on, you have to make it!_ Three. Two. One. Z-

“He’s safe!” Pidge jumped and shouted in jubilation. Yes! Her brother was safe! The lizard man smiled.

“My job is done, yes, it is. I have repaid the debt, I told his story, I stayed with him waiting for you. Now I can leave.” He smiled again, scuttling out of sight. Pidge raced down, out of the fortress, sprinting for the castle as fast as her short legs would carry her. She screeched to a halt in the medical bay where her brother floated asleep peacefully in the cyro pod. He was safe, and that was all that mattered. Allura told her that Matt and Shiro would get out at about the same time, and Lance and Hunk were already making bets as to who would come out first. Pidge would get both her big brothers at the same time.

Shiro sniffled a little.

“Aww, you think of me as your big brother?”

“Yeah, of course, Shiro!” Lance turned to Hunk.

“Oh, yeah, Hunk you owe me five bucks for that bet. Shiro did come out first.” Hunk groaned.

“Are you really going to hold me to that?” Lance flashed him an evil grin.

“Oh, yeah.” Pidge rolled her eyes. _Boys_. Her mother, who hadn’t let go of her the whole time immediately started to berate Matt.

“How could you get shot?!”

“Mom, I got kidnapped by aliens, worked in a camp, and daringly escaped from said camp, and you are yelling at me for getting shot?”

“Yes! I am _grounding_ you for letting yourself get shot! How many times have I told you not to play with guns!” Pidge’s older brother blinked, entirely nonplussed. Pidge knew that her mother was trying not to think of what had happened to him by berating him about something not as important, but it was hilarious to see the expression on her brother’s face.

“Mom, I wasn’t playing with a gun!”

“I let you join the military, Matt Holt, and you get kidnapped by aliens, and get a piercing in your stomach, young man, I am _never_ letting you out of the house again!” Pidge giggled, and her mother turned her frowning gaze on her.

“And don’t get me started on _you,_ young lady! I let _you_ leave, and you start to drive, even though you don’t have a license, you run off with strangers, and you stole money from a fountain to buy a video game!” She turned to her husband. “Why didn’t you stop her!” Pidge started to shake from suppressing laughter, and she could see the other paladins biting their lips to keep themselves from laughing.

“Honey, I couldn’t-”

“Don’t you honey _me,_ Sam Holt! Why was your daughter gallivanting out in space by herself!”

“Shiro was there,” he mumbled weakly, “Yell at him.”

“I think I will, thank you.” Shiro’s grin slid off his face and he backed away slowly.

“Whoa, don’t put _me_ into this, I didn’t…” Pidge’s father grinned.

“Sorry Shiro. Your group is family. Means you have to take punishment from the mother as well.”

“Why did you let my daughter fly around in space by herself!”

“I didn’t… I wasn’t…” Pidge’s mom shook her head slowly.

“I thought you would be a good chaperone, Shiro. You are grounded as well.”

“I’m 26.”

“Too bad.” Pidge couldn’t hold it in any longer. She busted out laughing, and so did the other paladins. Her mother’s angry façade tumbled off and she laughed as well, so soon everybody in the room was at least giggling a little. Even Lance’s siblings, who had no idea what was going on were laughing uproariously. Pidge wiped tears from her eyes. This was the happiest she could ever remember being.

Of course something went wrong. How could it not? An explosion shook the house. They were here. They’d come for their families. They could never escape the Empire.


End file.
